Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 4.djvu/37

 THE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT AND THE UTAH EIGHT-HOURS' LAW.

Although it has passed almost as unheralded by the serious journals devoted to sociology as by the daily press, the recent decision of the supreme court of the United States sustaining the constitutionality of the Utah statute which constitutes eight hours a legal working day in mines and smelters may, without exaggeration, be compared with the Dred Scott case as a deci- sion of the highest national importance. For while that deci- sion fomented rebellion and contributed mightily to the forced reconstruction of the southern states, this decision averts a dan- ger no less actual, though more insidious and slow to be per- ceived ; while that decision worked destructively, this one works constructively ; while the Dred Scott decision destroyed the hope that chattel slavery could be restricted by constitutional methods, this decision confirms the hope that industrial freedom may be established and extended by these methods, legislatures and courts working harmoniously to promote the health and wel- fare of the wage-earners. By its reasonable and affirmative con- struction and definition of the intent and scope of the fourteenth amendment to the constitution of the United States, this deci- sion opens the way for a long and peaceful evolution of the beneficent powers of the states, and for reasonable and equitable conditions of work. The fact that it immediately secures for the employes in certain industries in Utah the benefits of the legal working day, while of great importance, is not the vital point in this decision. Far more important to the nation and the future is the fact that it rehabilitates the states in the per- formance of some of their most weighty functions, and reaffirms principles which, formerly regarded as self-evident, have in recent years been not only disputed but abrogated by state supreme courts in a long series of decisions.

In all great industrial countries it has long been recognized